Why is it that some people seem to struggle to sell their product or service with confidence while others could, as they say, “sell ice to an Eskimo?”

Why are some business people completely paralyzed by the fear of failure or rejections while others seem to experience unbelievable success without seemingly lifting a finger?

Why is it that some people have amazing ideas and good intentions but can never seem to overcome feelings of inadequacy while everything that someone else touches turns to pure gold?

It’s almost as if those people who achieve amazing sales success know something that others don’t.
It seems like they know some sort of insider info or exclusive sales secrets that gives him a competitive (or even unfair) advantage.

Well, guess what?

They do.

But they aren’t going to be secret much longer.

That’s because Kevin Harrington (you know, the guy from Shark Tank…), in connection with the late Zig Ziglar’s company, Ziglar, Inc. have created a brand-new, FREE video series called “Secrets of Sales Success.”

In this series, Kevin will unwrap the sales secrets that made the name Zig Ziglar synonymous with sales success and that helped Kevin sell over $5 Billion worth of products throughout his career.

In the very first video that was just released, Kevin reveals Zig Ziglar’s core secret that he believed would 100x your success.

One of the most iconic sales platforms in our culture is the infomercial.

Laugh all you want, but almost everyone has seen one and almost everyone has been tempted – at one point or another – to order that set of knives, that new exercise machine or some gadget to make everyday life easier.

“But wait there’s more…” has become part of the fabric of our culture.

Why?

Because it works.

You may know Kevin Harrington from the hit television show, Shark Tank, but before he was a Shark, he was one of the early pioneers of the infomercial.

That’s right, he pioneered “but wait, there’s more!”.

Kevin took sales secrets and techniques from the likes of Zig Ziglar, combined it with his own experience and used it to sell over $5 Billion (yes, with a “B”) in products — much of it through infomercials.

And now Kevin is revealing his secret Sales Success Cheat Sheet — for FREE! Today is Day 2 that he is offering it, get it while you can!

Kevin says that every single successful sale follows this 3-step process — and he had 5 Billion pieces of evidence to back that up!

If you want to get your idea, product or service in front of more people, do what the masters do.
Get the cheat sheet today, along with a simple fill-in-the-blank worksheet so you can customize Kevin’s 3-step process to your unique idea, product or service.

“Tell ten people, show ten people, share it with ten people; ten people who already trust you and already like you. If they don’t tell anybody else, it’s not that good and you should start over. If they do tell other people, you’re on our way.” – Seth Godin

Below are a copy of my notes from Tools of Titans. For a book of over 600 pages I really could have taken a lot more notes but these are the things that stood out to me the most and things I wanted to be able to remember. This book is filled with “the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers.” I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first ordered the book but I thought it was an interesting read and would recommend it to others. If you enjoy The Tim Ferriss Show, you’ll definitely enjoy the book. The people in this book are absolutely amazing.

Throughout these notes I’ve included links for the people that you may want to learn or read more about. Just click the person’s name or highlighted note and you’ll find more information there. To get your copy of Tools of Titans, click HERE.

Top Quotes

…you don’t have to wait to start something. So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: Why can’t you do it in 6 months?— Peter Thiel pg 232 This was probably my most impactful quote in the entire book

When you’re thinking of how to make your business bigger, it’s tempting to try to think all the big thoughts, the world-changing, massive-action plans. But please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill someone enough to make them tell all their friends about you. — Derek Sivers pg 185

in business and in life — you don’t have to be on the extreme, but you have to ask for things, and you have to put yourself out there. — Noah Kagan pg 325

I now have a very simple metric I use: Are you working on something that can change the world? Yes or no? The answer for 99.99999% of people is no. I think we need to be training people on how to change the world. — Peter Diamandis pg 369

If you want to be tougher mentally, it is simple: Be Tougher. don’t meditate on it. — Jocko Willink pg 412

“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”

You [have] the ability to renegotiate your reality all along.

while the world is gold mine, you need to go riffing in other people’s heads to unearth riches.

Just Remember Two Principles

Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits.

The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths. Humans are imperfect creatures. You don’t “succeed” because you have no weaknesses; you succeed because you find your unique strengths and focus on developing habits around them…. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. The heroes in this book are no different. Everyone struggles.

Kids don’t do what you say. They do what they see. How you live your life is their example.

Is that a dream, or a goal? Because a dream is something you fantasize about that will probably never happen. A goal is something you set a plan for, work toward, and achieve.

Why would I be wound up? I’m either ready or I’m not. Worrying about it right now ain’t gonna change a damn thing. Right? Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. I’ve either done everything I can to be ready for this, or I haven’t.

A blue collar work ethic married to indomitable will. It is literally that simple. Nothing interferes. Nothing can sway you from your purpose. Once the decision is made, simply refuse to budge. Refuse to compromise.

We get behind leaders who stir our feelings. In the early days of your venture, if you find someone diving too deep into the numbers, that means they are struggling to find a reason to deeply care about you.

Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

My goal is not to fail fast. My goal is to succeed over the long run. They are not the same thing.

To do original work: It’s not necessary to know something nobody else knows. It is necessary to believe something few other people believe.

It’s not what you know, it’s what you do consistently — Tony Robbins pg 210

When you’re earlier in your career, I think the best strategy is to just say ‘yes’ to everything. Every little gig. You just never know what are the lottery tickets.

don’t be a donkey. You can do everyone you want to do. You just need foresight and patience.

Even when everything is going terrible, and I have no reason to be confident, I just decide to be. — We are whatever we pretend to be.

When you’re thinking of how to make your business bigger, it’s tempting to try to think all the big thoughts, the world-changing, massive-action plans. But please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill someone enough to make them tell all their friends about you.

Investing in yourself is the most important investment you’’ ever make in your life…There’s no financial investment that’ll ever match it, because if you develop more skill, more ability, more insight, more capacity, that’s what’s going to really provide economic freedom…It’s those skill sets that really make that happen.

“If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool. If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy.” — Jim Rohn

The reason you are suffering is you’re focused on yourself

Casey Neistat pg 217

TF: How can you make your bucket-list dreams pay for themselves by sharing them?… If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

What is the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it’s not how much time you spend doing what you love. It’s how little time you spend doing what you hate.

…you don’t have to wait to start something. So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: Why can’t you do it in 6 months?

What I prefer over trends is a sense of mission. that you are working on a unique problem that people are not solving elsewhere.

The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.

tell ten people, show ten people, share it with ten people; ten people who already trust you and already like you. If they don’t tell anybody else, it’s not that good and you should start over. If they do tell other people, you’re on your way.

Because the fact is, there are plenty of countries on Earth where there are people who are willing to be obedient and work harder for less money than us. So we cannot out-obedience the competition. Therefore, we have to out-lead or out-solve the other people… The way you teach your kids to solve interesting problems is to give them interesting problems to solve. And then, don’t criticize them when they fail.

The Law of Category pg 276

If you didn’t get into the prospect’s mind first, don’t give up hope. Find a new category you can be first in. It’s not as difficult as you might think.

Sometimes you need to stop doing things you love in order to nurture the one thing that matters most.

It’s not about ides, it’s about making ideas happen.

Truth is, young creative minds don’t need more ideas, they need to take more responsibility with the ideas they’ve already got.

How to Earn Your Freedom pg 362

The more we associate experience with cash value, the more we think that money is what we need to live. And the more we associate money with life, the more we convince ourselves that we’re too poor to buy our freedom.

I now have a very simple metric I use: Are you working on something that can change the world? Yes or no? The answer for 99.99999% of people is no. I think we need to be training people on how to change the world.

we’re here today having this conversation because I did not give up. I’ll leave it at that.

…you should have a running list of three people that you’re always watching: someone senior to you that you want to emulate, a peer who you think is better at the job than you are and who you respect, and someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did — one, two, or three years ago — better than you did it.

Memento mori — remember that you’re gong to die. It’s a great way to remember to live.

To me, success is you make your own slot

Bryan Callen pg 483

I think you should try to slay dragons. I don’t care how big the opponent is. We read about and admire the people who did things that were basically considered to be impossible. That’s what makes the world a better place to live.

When you’re told that something is impossible, is that the end of the conversation, or does that start a second dialogue in your mind, how to get around whoever it is that’s just told you that you can’t do something?

TF: “These ideas” = having a “secret” as described in Peter Thiel’s Zero to One: knowing or believing something that the rest of the world thinks is nonsense.

Very often it’s a question of being the first person to connect things that have never been connected before.

8 Tactics For Dealing With Haters

It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do.

10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it and treat it as math.

When in doubt, starve it of oxygen.

If you respond, don’t over-apologize

You can’t reason someone out of soothing they didn’t reason themselves into.

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You’ll avoid the tough decisions, and you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted. — Colin Powell

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid — Epictetus

To do anything remotely interesting, you need to train yourself to handle — or even enjoy — criticism

Living well is the best revenge. — George Herbert

Rainn Wilson pg 543

dig deeper. We can make the world a better place. We can ask more of ourselves. We can do more for others. I think that our life is a journey… Dig deep on your journey and the world will benefit from it.

Naval Ravikant pg 548

If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are, but if you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you are.

There’s a theory that I call ‘the five chimps theory.’ In zoology, you can predict the mood and behavior patters of any chimp by which five chimps they hang out with the most. Choose your five chimps carefully.

Free education is abundant, all over the internet, it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.

TF: “The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It’s the same thing – fear – but it’s what you do with it that matters.” Cut D’Amato (Mike Tyson’s legendary first coach)

When I had the opportunity, did I choose courage over comfort?

If I’m not a little bit nauseous when I’m done, I probably didn’t show up like I should have shown up.

Be clear that your ladder is leaning against the right building.

Testing The “Impossible”: 17 Questions That Changed My Life pg 594

What if I did the opposite for 48 hours?

What do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch?

What would I do/have/be if I had $10 million? What’s my real TMI?

What are the worst things that could happen? Could I get back here?

If I could only work 2 hours per week on my business, what would I do?

What if I let them make decisions up to $100? $500? $1,000?

To get huge, good things done, you need to be okay with letting the small, bad things happen.

People’s IQs seem to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.

Whats the least crowded channel?

What if I couldn’t pitch my product directly?

People don’t like being sold products, but we all like being told stories. Work on the latter.

What if I created my own real-world MBA?

Do I need to make it back the way I lost it?

What if I could only subtract to solve problems?

What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4 to 8 weeks, with no phone or email?

Am I hunting antelope or field mice?

The analogy of the field mice and the antelope. A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent it’s day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice? In the short term it might give you a nice, rewarding feeling. But in the long run you’re going to die. So ask yourself at the end of the day, “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”

Another way I often approach this is to look at my do-do list and ask: “Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?’

Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is?

What would this look like if it were easy?

How can I throw money at this problem? How can I “waste” money to improve the quality of my life?

If you’ve got enough money to solve the problem, you don’t have the problem

I have a lot of conversations with people who want to start their own thing, and one of my favorite questions to ask is, ‘Is this an itch, or is it burning?’ If it is just an itch, it is not sufficient. It gets to this point of how badly you really want it. For me, I burned to boats. there was no way I was going to get a job. Failure was never an option. I had to make this work.

Life is not waiting for the storm to pass, it’s learning how to dance in the rain.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say. “Good.”

Accept reality, but focus on the solution. Take that issue, take that setback, take that problem, and turn it into something good. Go forward. And, if you are part of a team, that attitude will spread throughout.

Many of these top 17 books are some that I have already read. But for those that I have not, they are next on my list. If you’re interested in any of them click on their title above or join Audible to have the opportunity to listen to them during your commute, while you exercise or any other time. Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had a number of people asking me for suggested books to read. There are a lot of great books that I’ve read and there area always new great ones being published.

I refer most people to my Reading List if they are looking for a book to read. My Reading Listis the list of all the books I’ve read split up into different sections. It also has my top must read and currently reading lists. If you are interested in any of the books on my list just click on the title and it will take you to the Amazon page where you can learn more about the book and order it for yourself.

But there are two books that I have suggested in the past couple weeks that I’ll point out. The first one was one that made me think a little more than normal. The reason was because of the person who asked. It was my 14 year old son who came into my office and asked if I had a book he could read. It made me sit back and think about the books that I’ve read that I would really like my son to learn something from. I’ve had him read books such as The Compound Effect and The Richest Man in Babylon. This time I thought the book that would be great for him to learn from at this time in his life was The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure. So if you are looking for a book that will help you to learn how to take massive action to achieve your goals, it’s definitely a book you need to read.

A New York Times bestseller: “[Red Notice] does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what Liar’s Poker did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder’s business saga meshes well with the story of corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, making Red Notice an early candidate for any list of the year’s best books” (Fortune).

If you are like me and travel a lot, take advantage of your travel time and listen to your books on audio. For a free trial of Audible and two free audio books, click the link below:

Failure is such a common word when people talk about entrepreneurship. We hear things like, fail fast or fail often. It’s a known thing, all business don’t succeed. Things happen that are out of the entrepreneurs control. A good idea doesn’t work out because of an outside force or situation. Or a business fails because it was a bad idea from the beginning. Maybe it was a good idea but it was poorly executed. Whatever the matter, some businesses fail.

As an entrepreneur I am well aware that failure is part of business. But a lot of entrepreneurs think like I have, that failure is something that happens with other people’s businesses. Sometimes, as hard as it might be, failure is the best option, or the only option. I have operated in situations with the attitude that failure is not an option and in the long run it was a mistake. In those situations I believe that if I would have allowed myself to fail I would have been able to pivot and get back on track a lot sooner than I had by trying to keep something going that should have failed sooner.

The most important part of failure is the lessons learned. I hope that the future will show that I have learned from my mistakes and moving forward can be a better entrepreneur because of it.

“The easiest way to feed your beast is to spend time learning something new or learning how to be even better at something you’re already doing.”

In my blog, Read Less and Study More, I talked about Darren Hardy teaching that rather than moving from book to book as we complete them, we need to spend more time studying what we read to really get a better understanding of the topic.

Cardone teaches that, “What we pay attention to is what you get.” and “The more attention you give something, the more you feed it, the stronger and more powerful it grows.”

As we are learning something new or trying to be even better at something we are already doing, we will have more success as we dedicate more of our time and focus to that topic. As Cardone would say, become obsessed with the topic.

I really enjoy reading business and personal development books. There are so many good ones out there that I got into the habit of feeling like I had accomplished something when I could finish one book and already have the next one waiting to get started. How many could I read in a year?

I also loved to have the audio version of some of the books so I could listen to them when I was in my vehicle or working out. But the real blessing came when I discovered Audible.com. I continued my reading habits but my books on audio were supercharged. I was able to read and listen to so much!

But a while ago I was listening to Darren Hardy and had a paridigm shift. He addressed exactly what I was doing and suggested that rather than reading 32 books in a year it would be better to read one book 32 times. He said that we should try to read less and study more. Rather than just reading a book and moving onto the next one, make sure you have really learned what the book is teaching. How are you going to implement the ideas? What actions are you going to take?

It really made me think about what I was doing. If I really liked a book I often read it a number of times or also got the audio version and listened to it a few more times. But if I really want my reading to help me improve in a specific area or reach a specific goal, I love what Darren Hardy teaches.

We each need a specific plan to develop and improve our skills. Darren Hardy suggests that we set quarterly goals and determine the skills we need to learn in order to reach our goals. He suggests that we buy the top five books, three audio programs and one seminar on that topic that we will study for those three months. During that time we need our own plan or schedule for both reading and listening. He suggests 30 minutes per day, no more, no less. In The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson suggests 10 pages per day. Whatever it is, just make sure you stick to it 100%. As Jeff Olson would say, this is the part that is easy to do, but just as easy not to do. Make sure you do it!

Also figure out your listening time. Whether it’s during your workout or while you are driving spend that time learning. My suggestion with the audio books during this time would be to listen to them as many times as you can to really absorb the information. You will pick up new things each time you listen to a book. Don’t just hear it, learn it!

Whether it’s from your reading or your listening, pick out the top three things that you get from each book and implement them right away.

Though I’m easily distracted and become anxious to read or listen to the next great book I hear about, Darren Hardy’s plan is great and will help me develop a much better understanding of my area of focus for that quarter.

I love learning from Darren Hardy. These are two books that I would suggest reading if you are interested in any of his work. Click on the images below to learn more.